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Brennan calls for screening of state directors

MANAGEMENT guru Niamh Brennan has called for an independent commission to vet politically appointed directors before they take up seats on state boards.

Separately, Goodbody Stockbrokers, in an extensive report on corporate governance practice among Irish publicly quoted companies, has found a massive concentration of cross-directorships between Ireland’s top companies and has concluded that, in some respects, “the Irish boardroom does not measure up”.

Brennan, the professor of management at University College Dublin, said proposed appointments to boards in the state sector should be screened by a body like the judicial appointments advisory board (JAAB).

Candidates could be appointed to a pool of potential directors and a state appointments board could judge if they “had sufficient understanding of the duties and responsibilities of a director”, she said.

Brennan, the wife of Michael McDowell, the justice minister, last week lectured 70 state board directors on the principles of good corporate governance,